2016 Eclipse Awards: Spendthrift Farm

B. Wayne Hughes’ Spendthrift Farm took quality over quantity to its extremes on the racetrack in 2016, taking home seven graded stakes wins in just 35 non-partnership starts.

Those seven wins accounted for half of the Lexington, Ky.-based operation’s 14 victories, with total earnings of $2,644,672. Spendthrift’s five Grade 1 wins were the most of any North American owner in 2016.

The year was highlighted by the farewell campaign of Beholder, a multiple Eclipse Award winner and Spendthrift Farm’s standard-bearer for the past half-decade. Beholder never finished worse than second in six starts last year, taking the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes and the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes en route to a heart-stopping photo finish victory over Songbird in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

:: Eclipse Awards: 2016 finalists with profiles

Hughes also was represented on the sport’s biggest stages by sprinter Lord Nelson, who went undefeated in four starts last year, including a three-race streak of Grade 1 wins in the Triple Bend Stakes, Bing Crosby Stakes, and Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes. Lord Nelson was retired at the end of his campaign and joined Spendthrift Farm’s 27-horse Kentucky stallion roster.

Other notable runners under the Spendthrift banner in 2016 include Grade 3 winners Cover Song and Cyrus Alexander. Cyrus Alexander was co-campaigned with Stonestreet Stables.

This year marks the first time Spendthrift Farm has been named an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding owner since Hughes purchased the property in 2004.